Naeba Now: Wednesday 24th January 2018
- Jan 24, 2018
- 3 min read
Independent snow and weather reporting from the Naeba region of Niigata
New snowfall at base 19cm
Snowfall at base this season 656cm
Posted on Wednesday 24th January 2018 This is an archived report. The latest Naeba Now report can be found here.
Good morning from Naeba!
We have had another 19cm in the past 24 hours, making the storm total so far to 43cm so far. The pistes are in fantastic condition, with lots of powder stashes hidden around in bounds. It's a slow start with the lifts this morning, most likely due to the fresh snow fall we have experienced over the past couple of days. Light snow is still falling, which will increase to moderate snowfall this afternoon. This evening we should expect another dumping of heavy snow. Temperatures are expected to be cool throughout today, dropping to as low as -12°C overnight tonight.
Looking forwards, "Storm Finn" certainly isn't finished with us yet. We continue with our current track record of a entire six day forecast being filled with snowfall, with significant snowfall predicted to continue until at least Saturday. Temperatures are expected to remain much cooler than in preceding weeks, with overnight highs repeatedly dropping below -10°C. We should expect moderate winds to accompany the persistent snowfall through until the weekend.
Finally, our thoughts are with all those involved in the terrible incident at Mount Kusatsu-Shirane yesterday. We wish to thank all those who responded to the incident and provided support to those trapped and injured on the mountain.
About the volcanic eruption at Kusatsu-Shirane-san in Gunma
As you may have heard, yesterday morning there was a limited volcanic eruption followed by an avalanche in western Gunma Prefecture, close to the border with northern Nagano Prefecture. The eruption at Motoshirane happened close to the more famous Kusatsu-Shirane-san - and also the slopes of the Kusatsu Kokusai ski resort. Around 80 skiers were evacuated to an area near the upper area of Kusatsu-Shirane with some trapped in the gondola and on lifts for a while.
Very sadly, as a result of this event there was one fatality and a number of injuries, apparently due to flying rocks and the avalanche. As far as we can tell there have been no further eruptions since yesterday morning.
Our thoughts are with everyone involved and caught up in this.
This incident made the international news with some people visiting Japan asking if their ski resort will be safe, and so we thought we would add this information to our daily reports this morning.
The only ski resort affected by this event is Kusatsu Kokusai in Gunma Prefecture.
It is currently unclear how this will affect the top area of the resort, but it seems that the lower slopes of Kusatsu Kokusai will remain open today – those slopes are quite a distance from the affected area. (And perhaps this is a good example of how Japanese people are used to living with the threat of earthquakes and volcanos!)
The ski resorts in Shiga Kogen (Nagano) and Manza Onsen (Gunma) are the other closest ski resorts, but they are outside of the 2km restricted area -- and are unaffected.
And of course, ski resorts that are further away than that are also totally unaffected.
The central part of Kusatsu town itself is about 7km away from the volcano and so also unaffected.
We hope this information helps.
Naeba Now 2017-2018 season |
Data as of Wednesday 24th January 2018 Total snowfall at base so far 656cm Number of days snowfall observed 31 days Most snowfall observed on 1 day 79cm (reported on 14th December) November 2017 snowfall 46cm observed on 2 days December 2017 snowfall 400cm observed on 18 days January 2018 snowfall 210cm observed on 11 days |
All snowfall data presented on this page is the snowfall measured and observed at base/town level by our reporter based in Naeba. The 'new snowfall' number represents the amount of snow measured since the previous report. All opinions are those of the individual reporters. Information regarding ski area operations is manually checked every morning and is believed to be correct at the time of the report.